Historical · published 6 May 2021 · last verified 17 August 2026

Ageing firmware and weak defaults

A Which? investigation reported weaknesses in several old ISP-supplied models.

Scope caveat: Historical evidence. Do not use this as a current provider-wide ranking or a verdict on modern routers.

Affected products
Older EE, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone routers
Hardware revisions
Legacy models listed in the original research
Firmware range
Firmware current in 2021
Threat
Ageing firmware and weak defaults
CVE references
Not applicable
Impact
A Which? investigation reported weaknesses in several old ISP-supplied models.
Conditions required
Applies only to the specific legacy models tested at the time.
Vendor response
Providers responded individually; several models have since been replaced.
Consumer action
Ask whether your exact model still receives updates and request replacement if it does not.
Status
Historical
Source type
Mainstream press